


Sui Generis

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Legally Blonde Series (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-20
Updated: 2006-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1628597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elle's good at getting what she wants, even if everyone else doesn't always take her seriously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sui Generis

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my patient beta, Sans Merci, who put up with me constantly adding and removing scenes in order to try to get it to feel as fun and frivolously fluffy as the original movie. Legal terms used were all looked up on the Net, including the title, and obviously, I don't own the movie or any of the characters. Enjoy the story!
> 
> Written for fearlessfan

 

 

_ab initio:_

"C... D... E!" The pull-tab of the can broke off and with a girlish squeal, Elle spun it on the counter of the café table. It landed with the narrow end pointing towards her, signifying the first name, and her friends instantly leaned in towards her, all of them gossiping fiercely and trying to guess what the name was.

Back home for the summer after her first year of law school, Elle was finding that nothing had changed with her friends. All the talk was of the wedding, boys, the wedding, boys, the wedding, law school, and which boy would be accompanying which of her friends to the wedding, as well as what they'd be wearing.

Elle didn't have a date to the wedding, but that didn't matter. As a bridesmaid, she'd be expected to dance with her counterpart on the best man's side anyway. Besides, as a fashion major, checking out everyone else's clothes would probably keep her busy anyway.

Of course, at the rehearsal dinner, when she realized that not only did she recognize her counterpart but that he was her erstwhile supporter and friend, Elle's interest in her dress took second-place to rushing up to greet him, "Emmett! I didn't know you were a friend of Jack's!"

Emmett smiled at her, the slow, warm smile that always made her feel like everything was just a little better, "We graduated in the same class." He took in the sight of Elle in a scandalously low-cut bridesmaid gown and asked in that surprised tone he seemed to find himself using a lot around her, "... Is that for the wedding?"

"Oh yes, isn't it gorgeous?" Elle responded, plucking at the material, "She designed it herself." Confidentially, leaning in and lowering her voice, she told him, "Serena wanted to get it in pearl-white but Margot said ivory would look more elegant and do you know, Emmett, Margot was so right. It goes much better with the bouquets like this."

"What's the difference?" Emmett asked unwisely; Elle spent the next hour showing him shades of fabric that Emmett would be willing to swear were all the same.

He could never confuse the gold of her hair with the blue of her eyes, so admired those instead.

_complaint:_

"--and then the Professor assigned us another paper!" Elle finished her tale with an exasperated sigh, and flicked her hair away from her eyes. She dug into her container of Chinese food with expert jabs of her chopsticks, knees tucked up against her chin and phone cradled against her ear, "Emmett, I don't know how I'm going to make it up to meet you in New York this weekend. Maybe I should just give you a rain check for another day."

"If you think you'll be too busy.." Emmett didn't argue, as Elle knew he wouldn't. He understood the importance of her studies, and always wanted her to do well, even when he was away assisting on cases.

"I do." Elle sighed, wishing that she could make the appointed - well, it wasn't really a date, just that she'd wanted to take him to the Metropolitan Art Museum after hearing he'd never been there - meeting but knowing there was no way she could make it. They chatted a little longer, and when Elle hung up, she was desolate but knew she'd done the right thing.

That weekend, as she was starting to get to work on her paper in one of the library's little study corrals, Elle heard a knock on the door and opened it to find Emmett standing there.

"The case finished early and your roommate told me I could find you here." He explained, and gave the pink scrunchie she was holding a quizzical look, "Is that part of your study plan?"

"Just getting my hair out of the way!" Elle hastily finished putting her hair up in a ponytail, then hugged Emmett enthusiastically, "Did you just get in?"

"It was a short flight." In other words? Yes. He held up a folder, "I'll work on this while you do your paper."

Another heart-warming grin, and Elle impulsively pecked a kiss on his cheek, "You're so sweet! Thanks for the moral support."

It was a little distracting to be working on living wills with Elle right there in the same corral as him, but Emmett was dedicated to his work and managed with a minimum of stolen looks at Elle.

He never caught her looking at him.

_res nova:_

"So, is this a date?"

"No."

Elle laughed, and nudged Emmett in the direction of the stalls where throwing a ball to knock down a pyramid of tin cans would win you a stuffed toy. "It's _so_ a date."

"Maybe I'm just taking you to the fair as friends." Emmett countered, even as he paid the stall-keeper and picked up the first ball.

"If you win me a prize, it'll be a date." Elle teased, watching as Emmett hefted the weight of the ball, then threw it in a swift, overhand motion.

It flew wide, and Emmett had no better luck with the other three balls. Elle's peals of laughter made him buy her a turn, asking as he did so, "And if you win me a prize?"

"Don't be a bonehead, Emmett. You know those games are rigged; if you couldn't win, why should I?" She protested lightly, even as he tossed her a ball to start off. Time to see what her tennis forehand had given her in the way of muscles, Elle thought to herself as she wound up for a throw, not expecting much.

Elle, however, managed to knock down the pyramid with only two balls when it was her turn. As the stall-owner sardonically presented Emmett with the stuffed penguin that Elle had won for him, she tucked her hair into her bandanna again and smiled up at him, "So, I guess it's a date after all."

"Guess so." Emmett said laconically, and then pushed the toy into her arms. "Here. Hold this while I win you something."

It took him over twenty dollars before he succeeded, but he finally won Elle a tiny pink Beanie Baby that the stall-owner gave him as a consolation prize for his `pretty lady'.

Elle loved it, but for her, the bigger prize was getting Emmett to admit what the two of them had been flirting with ever since they'd known each other.

 


End file.
